Escape anchor Etiquette

[gnarnaphobe]

Hey everybody, I'm wondering what every ones input is on long term webbing or cordalette escape systems on bolts.

In my opinion if some one needs to escape from a route and uses some webbing to equalize the bolts to get out of there, that's fine but their webbing should become booty... or trash(IMO).

The way I see it is if an anchor point (set of bolts) is intended to be used rappel point the route developer would have equipped it with chains, rings, or those beefy bolts you can rap off.

Specifically I'd like to mention the anchors at the bottom of the 5.9 alternate corner on centerfold(on the papoose) It's equipped with 3 standard bolts (more the sufficient), so once upon a time some one traverse to the anchors and decided they didn't want to continue (it was probably wet) they equalized an anchor and got out of there, then at one point or another another party had to retreat from the some point, the old escape anchor, presumable all sun baked, looked suspect so the next party re-equalized a piece of cordelette for redundancy and then they too got the heck out of there too.

So by the time me and my girlfriend arrive at the base of this low angle dihedral there is so much sun baked webbing threaded through the bolts you can barely fit one carabiner per bolt, the webbing is uber sunbaked and the quick links rusted shut.

My girlfriend didnt think it was my place to remove and pack out said webbing, so instead of ranting to her, I decided to leave it there for now and come rant on here, and see what the rest of the community thinks on the matter.


Are there people out there who feel these anchors are intended to remain as fixed rap stations?

-luke

[jipstyle]

I like simple rules: If it is unsafe, remove it and pack it out.

[thebigchin]

There are few things I like better than clearing a bunch of tat off of the side of a cliff.

[Fish Boy]

Climbed La Coalition last week and each belay was set up two bolts, non locking (but nice BD) biners and slightly crusty tat with a rap ring. Since the route is in the shade and only 14 or so months old, I was a little surprised by the tat condition. Anyway, it was set up to rap the route on, but was not a long term solution at all....